DANVILLE — The Arkansas Tech golf programs will honor the man who meant as much or more to them as any other individual this week when they host the first Dave Falconer Memorial Golf Classic at Chamberlyne Country Club north of Danville.

Tee-times will begin at 8 a.m. and the men will start things off, with the women to follow after.

First-year head coach Luke Calcatera said it wasn’t just the golf programs that wanted to honor the longtime Tech coach.

“He affected so many people in coaching and in life, so we wanted to have a tournament that paid tribute to his honor for all the people whose lives he touched,” Calcatera, who has led the Wonder Boys to two wins in five tournaments this year, said. “A lot of the other coaches in the program wanted to come because they felt it was a good way to pay tribute to coach Falconer.”

Falconer, who retired shortly before he passed after a year-long battle with lung cancer, spent 22 years as the Wonder Boys head golf coach and also spent eight years (1987-95) as an assistant basketball coach on Marty Barnes’ staff. Falconer also served as the director of Tech’s athletic facilities before retiring from that position in 2009.

In his 22 years as the head golf coach, Falconer led Arkansas Tech to five conference championships and five conference runner-up finishes. He earned three coach of the year awards, including the Gulf South Conference coach of the year in 2004 when he led the Wonder Boys to their only GSC conference championship.

Falconer led Tech to 10 national postseason appearances, including seven trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament appearances.

“It’s definitely been tough [replacing Falconer,]” Calcatera said. “He had his own way of doing things. I’ve just been trying to adjust to that as I start a new program.”

The two-day tournament will be like most any other NCAA golf tournament. It will start at 8 a.m. and teams will start at tee-times. It will be a 36-hole stroke play, and the top four out of five scores will be tallied for the team score.

“The main thing is we’re wanting to pay tribute to coach Falconer with this tournament, and will continue to do so as long as I’m here,” Calcatera said.

Chamberlyne Country Club has redone their greens with Champioins Bermuda grass, and Calcatera said the course is in amazing shape.

“I want to thank Mr. [John] Chambers and the Chamberlyne Country Club for helping out with this tournament and allowing us to use their golf course,” the coach said. “They’re letting us play there at a real reasonable price, which is going to help out the program.”